Tag Archives: honesty index

I’m a Northern lass at heart, and have often wondered how the folk down South compare in terms of honesty and integrity. It’s often the source of many a joke, but it was interesting to see the differences just between North and South London in a recent social experiment from the people at chilled organic herbal and fruit tea drink brand, Honest.

Lemon with Honey and Pomegranate and Blueberry Honest Teas – yum!

An honest experiment…

Based on a similar experiment conducted across the USA, called the Honesty Index, the Honest team in the UK set up an honesty box where they left some goodies out across a number of London hotspots at an unmanned stand with a “Take one, leave £1” sign for three weeks. The results were pretty extraordinary!

Some payed the full £1, others some left small change, foreign currency, or didn’t pay at all. Some lovely peeps donated £1 without taking a bottle! 85% paid at least something for their bottle of Honest, and a reassuring number of only one in seven didn’t pay anything.

So, how did the different areas of London compare?

1. East London – 94% honest
2. West London – 93% honest
3. Central London and North London – 84% honest
4. South London – 80% honest (am a bit shocked by this compared to the other regions – buck your ideas up, South London!)

Are women more honest than men?

Women in London seem to be the most honest by a small margin, with 86% donating compared to 84% of men. In the experiment, women were most likely to donate small change, or at least something in order to at least appear honest, while men would either pay the full £1 or leave nothing at all.

Don’t judge a book by its cover…

The Honest experiment found that brunettes, at 88%, were slightly more honest than blonde, who were 83% honest. Both were more honest than those with black hair, of whom only 78% were honest. Brunette women were also found to be the group most likely to stop for a bit, look at the ingredients on the bottle, and then donate. (Not sure what to make of this – most of my close friends are brunettes, one’s blonde, one has jet black hair, and I’m part blonde, part brunette. Hmm…)

– 91% of bespectacled Londoners were honest
– 78% with visible tattoos or piercings were honest
– Men with beards were 69% honest
– Bald people were very honest at 93%, compared to those with hair (84%)
– Men with long hair seemed to be the most honest group overall

Only in London…

Some of the weird and wonderful highlights of the experiment included:

– One woman paying for two bottles – one for her, and one for her hairdresser
– A very nice chap bought five bottles for his colleagues with a £5 note
– A dog lover paid for a bottle, showing it to the dog for approval
– One person paid with a Euro coin, another paid with two Nuevos Soles (from Peru)
– Mums used the opportunity to explain to young children the concept of honesty – and then encourage their little ones to pay for a bottle
– A driver stopped his bus full of passengers to nip out and pay for a bottle for him and a colleague who was driving behind him!
– One woman stopped her car at a red traffic light, paid £1, grabbed a bottle and whizzed off!
– A homeless man selling flowers paid the full £1 for a bottle just as a man in a suit grabbed a bottle without paying (this one makes me very ashamed of some unscrupulous Londoners!)
– Couples were most honest, with 92% paying the £1, compared to 84% of people who were on their own

Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest

Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest, and long-time fan of the UK and London, was delighted by the experiment and its results: “Bringing Honest to the UK is one of those pinch-me moments – being able to conduct the Honest Index here after the success we’ve had in the US is really something. We thought we’d try the Honest Index in London, and it’s great [to hear] such positive and heart-warming results.”